Yes that's what the canisters do. If you just have a smidgen of health left you must have chosen to blast your way through pigsville. Here's the sneaky way:

When you first enter theres a guard in the toilet stall. Turn off the light with the switch outside the stall and jam yourself into the corner to the left of the door. He'll come out and go left at which point you can break his neck and drag his body back into the showers.Then turn off the light in the second toilet stall and quicksave! (It's easy to mess the next bit up)Hug the wall and move to the switch on the wall by the locker room entrance. Flip off the lights and immediately move into the locker room, keeping to the right and activating your eyeshine. Avoid the flashlight beams of the two guards - If they see you and open fire then reload. Sneak up behind them and take them out silently with a neck snap, shiv or club. drag the bodies back out of sight into the showers and head back to the locker room. Search the lockers on the right and you'll find a guard's uniform. When you take it you'll automatically put it on. Now you have a disguise and you can stroll through almost the whole of Pigsville unmolested. Do NOT go around running and jumping or the guards will get curious! As youre walking around you can talk to all the guards wandering around.

Note - when you first come out of the locker room head right into the room by the Nanomed station. Go to one of the far corners and jump over the railing and down the hole. Pick up the vent tool you find down there and go back up via the vent hatch. When you get to the hanger doors with the retinal scanner you'll see a railing at the other end of that short hallway. Jump over there and you'll find a vent hatch leading to a room with a pack of smokes and a suit of guard armor (I don't know if it affords any protection but it sure looks spiffy when you wear it!) Exit through the door and resume your Pigsville stroll.

The whole procedure is moderately challenging to pull off but it's a lot safer for you and a lot more fun since you get to talk to the guards. There's also a shop where you can buy a pack of smokes that you wouldn't otherwise be able to get.

One last thing: Save often in this part. Its all too easy to do something silly and tip off the guards accidentally.

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It's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice.

That sounds like more fun than I had. I would rather sneak. I would have loved to have a guard's uniform. I am next to the guard dozing by the retinal scanner. I assume I have to use him on the scanner but I haven't been able to get it to work. I will look up the other uniform just for fun.

Right, I'm looking for Abbott. I'm glad you mentioned the guard's uniform. I tried going through the guard's quarters in the spaceport looking for Abbott, but there were so many guards! I went back and found the uniform and now I am walking around with no trouble.

Well, I found Abbott, but that didn't work out the way I hoped. I ended up in a really nasty prison and a lot of fistfights. They weren't hard to win though. The one with Abbott was harder because I didn't have the stilleto--found it later. Found a way from there to the mines. Just left the elevator and looking for the easy way in.

I have about three quests from there. One I've found and two I'm looking for. I don't want to do all the quests and I'm not looking for smokes, but I pick them up when I see them. The entry to the mines is tough without a gun. Still checking the area out.

I am so lost. I saw Jagger and headed up to get the bomb. Took the mine entrance elevator up, found no way to go from there, so went back through the vents. Had to detour from the power room because the door wouldn't open and ended up in a new area. I got into a riot guard gear and shot up everything in the area. Then I went across a handrail and turned on a generator. I need directions to get out of here.

You're doing just fine. After turning on the generator I *think* you get back in the Riot Guard and continue. My memory on that part of the game is kinda patchy.

There is an easier way to do the mine entrance bit. When you first get there, don't drop down into the elevator. There's a vent hatch up there that will take you into a duct that will lead to a guard standing with his back to you over a big ventilation shaft in the floor. Sneak up behind him and atack, you'll get one of the infamous context-sensitive kills and push him down the ventilation shaft. Then look around to find a power switch and turn the fans in the shaft off. Drop down into the shaft and stand on one of the lower fan blades. Look down and wait until the guard below is right underneath you then drop-kill him and you'll find yourself outside the door to the Security checkpoint, neatly bypassing the two hard to kill guards who were in the elevator. You can deal with them on the way back when you have the stun gun.

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It's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice.

Thanks. Glad to hear I'm on the right track. After the generator, a riot guard came through a door, so maybe that is the way out. I've looked everywhere else. I'll get back in the riot guard gear. I have only one square of health left, so hope I can make it.

I did use the vent to enter the mine. The other way seemed impossible. Quite often I just run and hope I don't take too much damage.

Whew, I finally got out of there. I liked being the riot guard. It sure kept me from being killed. I am still at one square of health and haven't seen a Nanomed station for hours. I remember all those I passed because I didn't need them.

I detoured to my old tower but could only enter a couple rooms there, so couldn't get patched up there. Hope there is some up ahead.

I made the big jump to end the mission. I hope there is a shorter way back to the mines with the bomb.

Stuck again. I planted the bomb and released all the creatures, climbed over obstacles, through some vents, killed a lot of bugs, crossed a broken bridge---and ended up where I started. I must have missed something.

There was a dead guard just before the bridge with a key. When you first started with the bugs there was a wall you climbed over. Just on the other side of there was a locked door to your left. That's the door the key opens.

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It's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice.

Found it. In all my battles with the bugs, I forgot about that door. I'm going to start making notes so I don't miss things I need to backtrack to.

Another problem--where is the drill? I don't remember seeing one. I made it to the room with the dead guard and the tool box. Went back and recharged the cell. I tried backtracking from there, but with all the bugs and one square of health, I don't get far. I'm beginning to hate these bugs. Way too many of them. I never did use any of the nanomed recharge cells and now that I need them, of course I don't have any.